"The Hallyu Mosaic in the Philippines: Framing Perceptions and Praxis": The 2014 AIKS Conference on Korean Studies

- June 19, 2014, Thursday.

- The Ateneo Initiative for Korean Studies (AIKS,) which serves as the office of the World Association for Hallyu Studies (WAHS) (Philippines,) organized its first hallyu conference in the Escaler Hall of the Ateneo de Manila University - my college alma mater. It was a local conference, but there were a handful of foreign participants who presented their papers on hallyu, also known as the "Korean Wave." For those not familiar, the Korean Wave, or hallyu, is the influx of Korean culture in other places, mostly through mass media (i.e. K-Pop and Korean dramas.) My former professor on Korean language and current president/director of AIKS/WAHS Philippines, Prof. Sarah Domingo Lipura, encouraged me to write a paper for the conference during this burning-hot summer. Fortunately, the paper-readers thought my paper was good enough, and so I was given the chance to talk about my topic.

- My paper's topic was about the Filpino stagnant fans and retired fans of hallyu. The stagnant fans refer to those who have lain low from the fandom, but are still fans, and may still engage in fan activities like attending concerts or conventions. Retired fans on the other hand, are people who have completely gone out of the fandom and are generally apathetic. I presented many factors as to why these people have gone out of the fandom. Some of these include personal reasons, loss of people to spazz with, the current state of hallyu in the Philippines (too mainstream, not as exciting as before, the "jejefication" of hallyu, etc.) among others. Despite all these things in my paper, the study had a "happy ending" by showing that even though many fans became stagnant or retired, their experience with hallyu has allowed them to have a better appreciation and tolerance for other cultures (not limited to Korean,) they trusted Korean products more, and that they were able to have a good impression on Korea as a whole. Because of this, hallyu is still an effective or relevant soft power/cultural diplomacy tool by South Korea.

- Today's conference was packed with VIPs. Dr. John Paul Vergara, vice president of the Loyola Schools did his opening remarks, His Excellency Hyuk Lee, ambassador of South Korea to the Philippines, gave his his warm greetings, and Dr. Ingyu Oh, director for general affairs of WAHS, shared his keynote speech. Distinguished professors from other universities were also present.

Hey look that's for me. Haha.

Prof Sarah, and Dr. Vergara.

Prof Sarah and the Korean ambassador.

Prof Sarah. Haha.

Prof Sarah and Dr. Oh.

Some members from the Ateneo Blue Symphony.

- I presented in the morning panel entitled "Dissecting the Filipino Content in Hallyu Fandom" with Dr. Catherine Deen of the De La Salle - College of Saint Benilde, who presented an exploratory study of hallyu fan clubs in the country, and Prof. Patrick Capili of the Ateneo Modern Languages Department, who painted an image of the colorful Philippine KPop fan culture. (Prof. Capili teaches Spanish and Portuguese in the Ateneo, and I was fortunate to have sat in in his Portuguese class some years ago.) Our chair-critic was Mr. Herdy Yumul from the Mariano Marcos State University.

Dr. Deen.

Prof. Capili.

And me!!

Awarding of certificates.

- We had a nice cozy lunch in CTC, and I had fun meeting some of the other scholars/professors who presented in today's conference. The afternoon panels talked about identity and representation in film and television, gender issues and their connection to hallyu. The last panel was a special panel that talked about the hallyu experiences in Southeast Asia (outside the Philippines.)

Prof Sanchez.

With Prof. Sarah.

Special panel.

Sir Beaver.

- The conference ended around 6pm, after Prof. Beaver Flores of my undergraduate home department, the Communication Department, gave his closing remarks. Although I'm still tired after the long day, I still can't believe that I had the chance to talk in the Escaler Hall even after graduating from the Ateneo, and I'm probably feeling this excitement/hangover from the experience because I spoke inside the Escaler Hall for a formal event. (The last time I spoke inside that hall, I think, was for a theology report during second term junior year.) Probably the best feeling I had today was being approached by some students and scholars after my panel, who wanted to see my paper or who wanted to ask some follow up questions because my topic intrigued them. (After all studies about people going out of a certain fandom/interest are rare compared to studies about people going into a fandom or subculture.) As a young scholar who's still finding his niche in the scholarly world, this experience made me feel that my academic endeavors are able to reach out to other people after all. (Again I'd like to thank AIKS/WAHS for giving me the opportunity to present in this conference - and for giving me an excuse to visit (the) Ateneo again.)